The Goliath Protocol

Chapter Forty-Seven:

Coming Home

Chris aimed it at Jill's chest, and Leon roared, "You son of a bitch!"

He tackled. People scrambled back. They rolled over the ground, trying to hit each other.

Rebecca cried out in fear, "No! STOP! Leon, wait!"

The device skipped over the ground as Leon slapped it from those gloved palms. They both rose, two legends in the dying firelight.

Neither reached for a weapon.

They both knew what happened when one did.

Chris snarled, "It's the only way! You think you can get her back now?! This is the only way to keep her fucking alive!"

Leon circled him, breathing white and cold in the frigid air. "You lying son of a bitch, you had this all along. What? You keep it on standby just in case? Ready to slap it back on her fucking chest and use her? Use her as a weapon?"

Chris pointed at him in the smoky air. "It's not that simple...it never was. I saw what she could do."

"You hypocritical piece of shit. I should feed you your lying teeth!"

Chris looked almost earnest as he argued, "I faced her. I knew...if she was already gone...we could use what was left to turn the tide of war."

Leon felt his blood run cold. "...you want to control her. You fucking disgrace. She trusted you! She died for you! She should have let you bleed out in that clock tower."

Rebecca's shock and censure carried in the wind, "Leon...you don't mean that."

Chris gave him a rage-filled look of righteous battle. "I want to save her! But I can't! This is what she is! Don't you understand!? She never came back. Not really. How could she? With what he made her. She had a trigger; she had to, for it still to be inside her. Wong? She knew it. She just used it. If we leave her like she is, Jill will kill us all. She's faster. She's better. She's mutated with that shit in her blood. I nearly killed her that first time, trying to stop her. And even then...even then...I knew what she was!"

Leon shook his head, shaking with regret, pain, and a thousand things that had no name. "...what is she, Chris? What!?"

It echoed through the mountain like the wrath of Zeus. Rebecca shivered with fear. Was there anything quite as scary as an unleashed Leon Kennedy? He looked like an avenging angel in the firelight. Splattered in blood, trembling with rage - with murder in his eyes like a madman.

And Chris answered in the swirling sky, "...a B.O.W. And sometimes, to stop one, you have to put a goddamn leash on another."

Rebecca tried to race between them, and Chris knocked her back.

Leon roared. He rushed him. They battled, and it was brutal. It was fast and furious. Rebecca screamed for help. On the ground, Jill twitched and snarled like a leashed dog.

Like a monster.

There were fists and fear and blood. Chris wasn't fast enough, not even close. He took a boot in the belly and a knee in the face. He rolled, and he grappled, but he couldn't hold on. He might have been bigger, but he wasn't faster. And unless he was willing to kill Kennedy, he was limited.

Leon fought like he had nothing to lose. Chris had heard the stories, of course. But talk was often hyped up.

It wasn't here.

Kennedy was a fucking weapon -trained by the people who put the righteous wrath of a patriot in his balls and his bones. They'd tried to tell Chris after watching the video of him in Asgard, they'd tried to warn him - if he ever went against you, you were dead.

He flipped and kicked and slid in the snow and the mud like a runner going for home. He punched and jabbed and retreated.

The total look of loss and revenge on him made him a frightening opponent. Chris wondered if he'd ever had that same look. Had he looked like when Jill had gone out that window? Had he looked like against Wesker in that volcano?

You didn't get that look unless you loved her.

And Leon Kennedy loved her. It was all over him. He wanted vengeance for her or something. He couldn't get it from a dead man, but he could get it from a living one. One they both blamed for what she had become.

Chris was afraid he'd lose the fight not because Kennedy was better but because they agreed: it was his fault Jill was a monster.

And guilt was going to be the death of him.

Rebecca tried to call him back. She gave it her best shot. She urged Leon to listen - just listen - and she'd explain everything. But he couldn't hear. He didn't listen. Wherever he was - the agent was lost under the man bent on a reckoning for the snarling woman on the ground.

Chris got lucky enough to dodge a kick over his head and punch Leon in the goddamn groin as he went. Chris grabbed him by the throat and shook him like a dog when he staggered. "Stop, you stupid bastard! I will destroy you!"

Leon head-butted him for it.

When Chris reeled, Leon dropped his elbow to take out the arm and spun back to use his other elbow to hit him in the face. Crunch. Blood. It smelled like copper in the air. It fired through him like adrenaline.

As Chris staggered, Leon ripped the knife from his chest.

Chris backed up, hands up. Rebecca shouted in horror, "Oh, god! Don't! Leon! Help! Help! KEVIN!"

Kevin shouted now, "Whafuck!?" And started running. But he wouldn't be fast enough. On the other side of the camp, he'd never get there in time.

Chris warned him, "It won't stop it. It won't change it. You fucking idiot, I'm not the enemy."

"No, you're a coward. And a fucking traitor. I told you once - if you touched her again, I'd kill you. The only way you enslave her is through me. Come on, you boulder punching bastard, how fucking good are you!?"

Jesus. It reverberated through the dark. His wrath scorched the ground where it spilled like lava. Chris was face to face with himself in that volcano again. Looking for redemption, for deliverance, for someone - anyone - to blame.

It was the first time in his life he saw himself reflected in the face of another man. It's what it meant to love someone - you'd kill anyone who threatened them. It was the reason he'd pulled away from Jill on her return so hard. He couldn't love her anymore. He couldn't - when he knew there might not be anything left of the woman he'd fought so hard to save.

Somewhere in the dark, she'd turned to the man facing him. And he'd found her. He'd brought her back.

And he was ready to kill for her.

Jesus.

To try to save Jill now, Chris was going to have to kill The Executioner.

And cost the fight against bioterror a goddamn warrior.

Resigned, resolute, Chris jerked his knife free from his vest. The firelight flickered over his face as the snow slid down his nose - a mixture of regret and steely determination and blood. "You have a choice here, Leon. You're making the wrong one."

"Am I? So did you. The second you let her go out that window instead of doing it yourself. And each goddamn day after it that you didn't spend looking for her. I can't kill Albert Wesker, he's already dead, but I can kill you. And maybe then...she can rest in peace."

Damn.

Chris snapped, "She's not dead, you fool. Get out of my way and let me save her."

"Save her!? You've spent a lifetime prepared to enslave her, you lying bastard. You're not better than Wesker. Somewhere along the way...you became the monster. And I destroy monsters."

Rebecca shouted, "Leon! NO! You're wrong! You have to stop! Please?!"

With no other choice, Chris met the face of his guilt in the form of a man with nothing to lose. He lifted the blade and beckoned, "...then finish it."

Chris braced as Leon rushed him. The ring of blades was loud in the quiet sky. People circled, frozen, unsure what to do. There was no protocol for two leaders locked in a battle versus each other. They were on the same side...weren't they? How did you stop something that shouldn't ever happen?

Chris backed up and defended. He didn't advance. He just kept resisting. With a flare of righteous rage, Leon roared, "Fight back! You son of a bitch!"

"No! You want me dead!? Then do it!"

Leon spun a back kick, dropped into a leg sweep, and kicked again from the hip as Chris stumbled. It sent the big man to one knee, and Leon kicked the knife from his hands as he careened to the side. He punched Chris in the side, aimed for the face, and was deflected by the other man getting his arms up so he kicked Chris to his back in the mud.

"Kennedy!" Kevin's answering roar rang like bells in the whipping wind. "Enough!"

It didn't matter. It was beyond that. It was over. He couldn't save her, but he could avenge her against the man that should have fought harder to spare her.

Rebecca whispered on the ground with Jill as tears gushed down her face, "I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry. They'll kill each other. I...have to try."

She stuck the device to the struggling woman, who snarled and spat like a feral animal. The device made a mechanical hiss. It thrust metal into its victim. Jill's eyes flared, and her mouth screamed high and loud. She bowed on the ground as Leon swung the knife for Chris like a man meant to finish it.

Kevin's gun went off. Jill flopped into the snow and went still.

And Leon was flung forward from the shot to the back. The vest took the impact but sent him to his knees in the mud.

Chris aimed a kick at his stomach and sent him rolling. Kevin shouted, "ENOUGH! The next mother fucker who lifts so much as an ass cheek to fart gets another. I can do this all day, ladies. So I suggest you holster that testosterone and look."

Leon rolled onto his back, trying not to swallow his stomach.

He turned his head to the side and found Jill looking at him.

The eyes were bloodshot and blue again. She whimpered where she lay on her back, still bound.

He rolled, crawling toward her until he touched her face. Rebecca, on her knees, whispered, "...I had to...I had to."

The device was firmly planted on Jill's chest. Tiny compared to its predecessor. It was pretty like a sapphire or a cerulean sky among the scars. She held Leon's eyes, and hers filled with tears as she whispered, "...I'm sorry. I'm-"

He covered her mouth. He shook his head. "Stop. I will fix it. You hear me? I will fix it."

Rebecca murmured, "...it's not P-30."

Leon looked at her in the firelight with his face smeared with soot and blood. "What?"

"It's not P-30...I...I used the A-Virus...I used the plagas sample...I used what we had on Uroboros...I was...it...was a hail mary. In case this...happened." Her eyes filled with more tears. "...it worked."

His hand slid off Jill's mouth as he demanded, "What did you do?"

Rebecca shrugged a shoulder, "...it's a backdoor protocol. It circumvents the triggering virus in her blood. It...it's a blocker. Like...erecting a wall around the mutation. It was theory. It was...I-I'm sorry. I just-"

His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. He shook his head. And he vowed, "You were right. You were always right. You're so much smarter than me. You are brilliant, Rebecca. Brilliant. What's the timeline on the blocker?"

Rebecca blew out a hard breath. "Depending on the rate of metabolization...I think we have a few weeks before she'll need a stronger blocker, or we'll need to build an antivirus. I need to know what the basis of the infection is. I need to know what I'm missing. Ada...she had to know to trigger it. It's gotta be something Wesker set up to guarantee Jill was activated if something happened to him. What? I don't know...I...I don't know."

Leon nodded; he licked his dry lips, "We'll find it. I'll rip it out of Ada myself."

Ada had overplayed her hand. He was going to stop at nothing to show her how he handled his enemies.

Rebecca mused, "I need to get Jill back to the lab. I need to check levels and determine how effective the blocker is. I-"

Leon shook his head. "She doesn't go back to the B.S.A.A. Ever. Get what you need and come to Silver Lake. We'll set up there."

Chris snapped, "Jill is under my command, not yours."

Leon held Jill's look and returned, "Consider this her resignation. She works for me now."

When Chris took a step, Leon warned, "Don't. All the bullets in the world won't save you if you take another fucking step. This woman right here?" He gestured to Rebecca, "She's the only reason I don't turn you into a shit stain in the snow right now. She outsmarted us both."

Rebecca murmured, "Leon...Leon...there are so many things you don't know."

"It doesn't matter now."

He started to release the cuffs, and Jill cautioned, "...don't. Please? Don't. Leave them. Be smart here. Be smart."

He nodded. He rose. He pulled Jill to her feet, and she collapsed against him, so he transferred her into his arms.

He carried her back toward the aircraft like she was nothing. Rebecca scurried behind and called, "Jill! I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do!"

It didn't matter. Rebecca had offered her another prison. She knew, in her guts, that the scientist had meant to help her. But the device on her chest was a cage around her sanity—a cage around her soul.

Monsters absorb the cage...and they are never free.

Silver Lake - Montana

With his permission, Rebecca turned the basement of his enormous house into her lab.

Jill was hooked up and tested, poked and prodded. She sat like an empty-eyed doll while they measured and checked and monitored.

Afraid, Logan hung around at the top of the stairs wringing his hands.

To the side, Claire advised, "Let me take him away for now. He doesn't need to see her this way."

Leon held her eyes. Eventually, someone would tell her about what had happened at the campsite. He somehow doubted they would remain friends when she discovered he'd tried to kill her brother.

Sternly, Leon returned, "He needs to see her exactly this way."

Claire gave him an angry expression and Leon explained, "Don't underestimate the boy, Claire. He's seen worse. Hell, he's survived worse. He needs to see her to watch her fight back."

Claire's anger relaxed into pity. "Leon..." The tone was similar to what one might use to talk a jumper off a ledge and irritated him, "Chris told me what she was like in Africa. He made it clear that she's not...Jill. Not Jill when she's like this. There's nothing to bring back."

The look he gave her might have blasted a boulder in a volcano without a single fist thrown. Claire shifted uncomfortably as he warned, "Don't give up on her, Claire. You hear me? Not now. Not ever. You did it once. You all did. And she came back. She's in there."

"...how do you know that?" Claire demanded quietly, "How can you know?"

He looked at her like she was stupid or blind or a bitch, she wasn't sure which. All three, maybe. "Because I know. Have faith in that, and me, or walk away. But the boy stays."

As he shifted to head toward Logan, Claire murmured, "He's not your son, Leon. You can't tell me what to do with him."

His jaw flexed as he returned, "You're right, he's not my son. But ask him what he wants, Claire. Ask him. He'll want to stay. And it's his mother. So he gets what he wants."

When he approached, Logan gave him scared eyes backed by a kind of strength that Leon respected. "She's lost again," Logan said in a tone that wasn't scared, it was sure. He held Leon's steady gaze with his own. "She's lost, Leon. We have to find her."

His heart jerked as he laid his hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'll find her."

Logan looked up at him with all the faith he needed to believe it himself. "It's scary in the dark...we can't leave her there. Don't turn the lights off, ok? She needs the lights."

Leon nodded, "I will always leave a light on for her."

"...so she can come home?"

His teeth gritted as he fought off the pain as Leon agreed, "So she can come home."

Logan nodded and went down the stairs. Leon followed him and stood in the doorway while the boy approached the glass partition and put a hand on it. Jill, on the bed, stared blindly forward, unblinking - lost.

Empty.

Through the glass, the boy told her, "I'm still here, Mama. I'm here...when you're ready."

Nothing. She didn't twitch. She didn't blink. She just stared.

But her eyes flickered and Leon told her in his head - still there. Still you. I'm gonna find you. Hold on, Jill...I'm comin for ya.

Logan came down every day to sit by the glass. He strummed on Leon's old guitar, learning notes, and playing music for her. He talked, even as she stared and Rebecca milled around poking her and measuring her vitals.

He told Jill about their time together. Did she remember when she told him about rainbows? Did she remember when she talked about survival? Survival was sometimes as simple as fighting when you wanted to give up.

"So, don't give up, Mama. Ok? Don't give up. That's the only way you really lose."

As the days passed, Jill got filthier and paler. She wouldn't eat. She wouldn't drink. Rebecca put her on a drip to get nutrients into her. She gave Leon a panicked look beyond the glass that was met with stone-cold determination.

A few days after her return, Rebecca hurried into the kitchen and announced, "I tried to stop him."

Leon narrowed his eyes as he started to ask what she meant and the clunk of boots signaled arrival.

Chris Redfield stood facing him in the morning light.

Softly, with feeling, Leon advised, "Turn around, walk away. Right now."

Chris held his look. "What you think you know, you don't know. You wanna do this? We can do this. Or you can take a fucking walk with me and listen. Your choice, but I'm not going anywhere."

Rebecca advised, gently, "Listen, Leon...please? Please?"

Damnit.

Leon threw down the dishtowel in his hands. He jerked a chair back from the table and gestured broadly, "Talk. You've got four minutes."

Chris didn't take a seat. He stayed standing. Rebecca spoke first, "When Chris came to me...he was concerned. It was...days after her return. She wasn't like this...she was rage. All spewing rage and revenge. They could barely hold her in check. She kept having these...manic episodes."

Jill, it seemed, had suffered from withdrawals so bad she'd become a demon of sorts. She'd fought. She'd screamed. She'd panicked.

Chris stated, "I wanted to know if we could make something, anything, similar to the P-30 to help with the damage to her system. Not the fucking control," He clarified when Leon's eyes flashed angrily, "The needs of her body for the thing."

Rebecca clarified, "Think like a drug addict. Like Methadone, ya know? Something to take the edge off."

Leon said nothing, jaw flexing. Rebecca added, "I tried a variety of soothers. Anything, everything to help her adjust. She consented," She rushed to explain, "She said ok. I didn't force anything on her."

Leon wondered if she'd ever really consented to anything. She'd spent a lifetime without a choice. Did she really believe she'd had one there? Submit, Jill, or it's back in a cage for you. Hell, they'd likely kept her in one in those days anyway - trying to figure out what she was.

Chris crossed his arms over his massive chest and added, "When Rebecca started talking about a blocker, it seemed impossible. It didn't seem like it would work. But I know about as much about science as I do about women, so I had to trust her."

Rebecca surged in, "I was afraid the compound might trigger a reaction unless constantly administered and I wasn't sure...I wasn't completely sure that injecting her with it might not trigger another reaction. Something far worse. Even if it eased the symptoms, what if it inadvertently triggered something else in her blood?"

Leon flicked his gaze to her as the scientist explained, "I didn't use it, Leon. Not then. It wasn't ready. I had to isolate various RNA and DNA-" She shook her head, "That-it doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. Suffice it to say I had to make sure I negated the infection on what I was playing with. I had to make it like a flu vaccine, ya know? The dead virus. Not the living one. To make sure I didn't inject her and turn her into the thing I was trying to prevent."

When the silence followed, Rebecca whispered, "It was Chris."

Surprised, Leon glanced at her again as she added, "It was Chris who suggested creating it like a hail mary. A compound meant to suppress her if something ever triggered the latent infection in her blood. Not to control her, Leon, to give her...hope."

Leon and Chris held eyes as the former sniper grumbled, "I didn't want a weapon in her, Kennedy. I wanted to stop her from becoming one."

They held that crackling look until a voice from the doorway called, "...Mr. Redfield?"

Surprised, all the eyes shifted to the boy in the doorway. Logan invited, "Would you-do you want to come see her? Maybe it will help."

Mr. Redfield - Chris thought with a wince - his son called him Mr. Redfield. It was surreal. Quietly, Chris offered, "You can call me, Chris, Logan. Alright? Or whatever you want."

Not Dad, Leon thought with a flicker of something like acceptance in his belly, not Dad. He wasn't there yet. He wasn't ready to trade out Captain for Father.

Logan nodded lightly, "Chris. I think it might help for you to see her. Talk to her. Tell her...that you're still here."

Chris' Adam's apple bobbed nervously as he nodded. He shifted and followed the boy down the stairs.

And he'd never been more afraid to face the unknown.